A refreshing, German-styled wheat beer with a distinctive banana and clove aroma, it is made with barley, wheat, hops, water and hefe yeast and named in recognition of the thousands of climbers who come from around the world to climb Squamish, BC's walls, crags, cracks, slabs and boulders.

Beer: Reviews & Ratings

Enjoyed on tap at the brewpub, frehly put on. Orange wheaty aroma. Cloudy light orange coloured body with some soapy head. A little water in there so only average mouthfeel, i would want above average mouthfeel. Good drinkability. Decent taste but have had better for the style whether you consider it a hefe or a weizen.Had on bottle a few months later, high carbonation. Not as good, though the bubble gum aroma clear. (421 characters)

Bottle: Poured a dark golden color ale with a large foamy white head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma consists of banana bread with bubblegum notes. Taste is also dominated by banana bread with bubblegum notes and some residual sugar notes. Body is quite full with good carbonation and no apparent alcohol. Solid offering with great refreshing factor with enough complexity and no apparent alcohol. (408 characters)

Another big-ass 1L swing-top bottle, found at my local wine-shop, go figure.

This beer pours a cloudy, medium tarnished golden yellow colour, with three fat fingers of puffy, foamy, and bubbly off-white head, which leaves a solid wall of columnar lace around the glass as it slowly melts away.

The carbonation is moderate, mostly just playfully frothy, the body a sturdy medium weight, crisp, and perhaps a little chalky in its game attempt at smoothness. It finishes well off-dry, the fruity and bready malt in a certain dance of the death with the spicy, tangy yeast, and more or less shadowy alcohol.

A stellar loaded (!) Hefeweizen, the particular interior Imperialization of this offering betraying no growing pains. Merely a fuller than usual flavour, no egregiously overt booziness, with the extraneous sweetness kept duly in check. Nice, that, and good enough that I find it difficult to defer to the default suggestion of finding someone with whom to share this. (1,343 characters)

Rich clear amber color in the tumbler. Big coarse bubbles that fizzle out to a ring of foam. Powerful aroma of bananas and black tea. Quite spritzy on the tongue.

Strong clove taste is just overpowering. Goes down easy enough as long as you don't stop to swirl it around where it might touch your taste buds. Slightly sweet but it has that dark bitter edge that annihilates any subtleties of taste.

More of a malt liquor than any kind of German ale, but for a powerful buzzcock brew it does the job. From the big swing-top bottle purchased at Wine World and Spirits in north Seattle. (586 characters)

1-liter brown capped bottle with an additional swingtop grommet to plug this puppy up incase you cant finish her all off in one sitting. Thanks go to psiweaver for seeking this one out and hooking me up with this. Poured into a proper brutus size weizen glass, this brew appears a hazed golden color with nearly 4 fingers worth of slightly off-white head. The head maintains very well and leaves thick frothy patches of lace all over the glass.

The smell is strikingly strong with clove, a faint touch of banana and some bready malts. There is a light tangy almost tart element to the nose that I associate with the inclusion of wheat. More sniffs reveal a light amount of underlying fruity character that blends into something along the lines of original pink bubblegum sweetness. As it warms up and is swirled, there is a light sulfur inclusion.

The taste includes the bready malt character along with spicy clove initially. There is a mild pepper aspect as well as faint banana. There is a fruity alcohol element that intertwines well with the bready wheat backing and the spices of the yeast. It also displays a minor herbal hop element that doesn't necessary push forth any bitterness, but it is there in the flavor.

For nearly 8% abv, this is certainly the most powerful hefeweizen I have had. However, it is surprisingly well balanced and enjoyable. It is light bodied and moderately carbonated. My only gripe here is that it almost feels a bit watery at times (perhaps that is due to the increase alcohol.) Regardless, this brew was a good time and I would recommend it if you can get your hands on it. Certainly worth a try. That alcohol is VERY well integrated. (1,675 characters)

Tangelo orange with kinetic carbonation and a white, mossy topping that engulfs the glass like overgrown ivy. The beer is darker in colour than many weissbiers and, although far from see-through, isn't truly cloudy either. Still, King Heffy looks like something delicious.

King Heffy has an aroma that is indeed notable and majestic. A banana bread-like base is doused in clove, green herbs and lemon zest. The yeast is tremendously energetic and spirited, animating the zest and spice to the point of seemingly breathing life into them.

Reviewing beer often requires the use of descriptors to give the reader an abstract of what is being smelled and tasted, even if those descriptions don't resemble the flavours absolutely. Sometimes there are exceptions, however. This Weisse tastes *literally* like banana bread.

The finish reveals a sweeter, pink bubblegum-like side to the beer that dampens the spice. The huge character notwithstanding, this doesn't taste any stronger than the usual hefe. It certainly offers the same satiation and refreshment. Amarillo and Saaz lend citrus and grass, respectively.

Even if King Heffy were German-made it would still rank among that country's best (which, in case you don't know, produces the original and still most iconic examples of the Hefeweizen style). It may come in a huge bottle but, trust me, it's a beer you won't want to share. (1,389 characters)

Poured a golden orange, with some light brown highlights. Nice white head and a thick collar. Nose has loads of bruised banana, bubblegum, slight wheat and general sweet bready notes. Great banana flavours on the palate, modest bubblegum notes as compared to the nose. Lots of wheat again, a general sweetness wraps around all of this. Great flavour, and light (if any) alcohol. Medium high carbonation, and a great thick body. A superior 'imperial hefeweizen,' one of my favourites of the evening. (549 characters)

Review from 6/2011 notes. Poured into a Black Raven pint glass. Pours a somewhat cloudy orange amber, thick white head and nice carbonation. Aroma of banana, clove and spice burst out the glass. An A+ for aroma. Banana, wheat, clove, some light citrus, a bit of vanilla. Spicy aftertaste. Very tasty. Finish slightly abrupt and astringent, but does not mar a very pleasant hefeweizen. I enjoyed this very much. (410 characters)

A cloudy golden orange with plenty of bubbles feeding a three finger head that has a few minuets of retention and leaves a couple specks of lace

S lots of banana and bubble gum with a little clove, dry cereal, spices and booze

T mimics the smell pretty well but with a little more booze, still pretty good even with poorly concealed booze and whens all's said and done it is 7.7% and that's hard to hide

M lots of bubbles makes it feel a little thicker then it actually is and the flavors linger for a while

D well rounded and for 7.7% this one could kill you under the hot summer sun, luckily I live in Calgary and this summer day is spitting rain with a high of 13 well suited for this big ass bottle of strong beer

solid beer and a fair price often mean I'll be drinking it again. Howe Sound makes some decent beers and I think this may be one of their better offerings (933 characters)

Poured a cloudy gold with large head and minimal lace patches. The wheat and yeast twang is pretty strong, typical clove spice aroma along with banana and little bit of orange and a decent amount of hops. Smooth, fuller body due to heavy use of yeast and there is a little bit of sweetness from this. Goes down easy and there are some spices and banana/orange /citric flavor notes along with little bit more hops/booze in the finish. A good beer to relax with and worth trying. (477 characters)

A - Poured mildy hazy and golden. Strong carbonation and a three finger fluffy white head. Great thick lace was left all around with a half finger of retention. Bottom of the bottle obviously adds more cloudiness.

First of its style in BC and very well done at that because if you are going to make an Imperial Hefe then it better be fun to drink. The alcohol creeps up in the first sip but pretty soon its all about the banana and cloves which fill the nose and the mouth. Reminds me a bit of El Jefe from Hales which is a good thing as I do enjoy a Hefe with overtop flavours once in awhile (378 characters)

My friend brought me this from Vancouver and I was grateful for the opportunity to taste it!

A - Pours a cloudy golden yellow with an orange hue, thumb of head which dissipates to a thin layer leaving a small amount of lacing.

S - Bananas and cloves are the strongest scents, very floral and sweet in nature.

T - The flavours on this one are rather complex, with a mix of sweet and bitter. On the sweet side you have bananas, vanilla and cloves, while on the bitter side there's some sour lemon hops, wheaty grains and a peppery finish.

M - Very light and bubbly, goes down smooth, slightly bitter and a little dry on the finish.

D - Very satisfied with this selection and was super excited to try this one. Howe Sound produces yet another winner, a solid hefe, and is highly recommended to anyone who has access to it. (824 characters)

Hazy pale orange, thick collar of white head, some lace. Smell is full of bubble gum, yeasty, banana and clove, lively and full of fresh wheat scents. Taste starts with a good dose of banana and clove, bubble gum and yeast, no abv of the 7.7% to be found. Med-high carbonation, good feel, fairly full body. This was very nice, a very flavourful assertive hefeweizen, glad I shared this as this is a big bottle but drinkable to the point where this could be done solo. (467 characters)

Great to see this available again this year, I managed to try a bit last year but it disappeared before I could do a proper review of it. Well then, I suppose that makes this the Summer 2011 version of it. Comes in a 1L brown bottle that's capped but also comes with a flip top.

Pours out a bright cloudy straw/gold hue, tall frothy white head that settles slowly, a lot of thin patchwork sticky lacing along the way.

Soft bready wheat on the nose, balanced levels of banana esters and spicy phenols (with nutmeg being most prominent). Some mild alcohol is present in the background.

While I have fond memories of this, and enjoy sipping on it, a closer evaluation reveals some puckering astringency on the finish that tends to break up the picnic. Nice smooth and rounded wheat up front, even a bit of creamy sweetness, along with candied banana esters, some earthy nutmeg and apparent alcohol, but it seems the phenols steal the show towards the finish and linger into the aftertaste, more tannins than phenols by that point.

Medium-full body, creamy and silky smooth, low carbonation.

I'm gonna get more of this while it lasts, I have no delusions about that, it's a great quaffable Hefe, even at the higher abv%. However I still can't ignore that harsh finish, and it does detract. Perhaps it wasn't even in last year's batch, and is an idiosyncracy to this current batch. Either way it's the only thing standing in the way of me declaring this as my favourite Canadaian made Hefe, and it still hovers near the top of that list either way. Worth seeking out. (1,569 characters)

Props again to andrenaline for the B.C. haulA - cloudy deep golden, tall white head that retained and laced exceptionally wellS - classic heffe cloves and banana yeast flavours, mild florals, grainy wheat malt, and some light melon flavour and even nutmegT - bananas, spicy cloves, some grainy bready malt, and again I'm getting light melon hintsM - good carbonation, smooths out to a gentle and slightly spicy fell, slightly dry finishD - a very well rounded beer, decent hiding of the 7.7% ABV, but I was definitely feeling it after finishing the full litre (564 characters)

Pours a cloudy golden orange color with a white head. Nice aroma of yeast, fruits, and cloves. Taste has tropical fruits, wheat, bubblegum, yeast, and a little alcohol. Medium bodied with medium-light carbonation, and slightly dry. Alcohol content is rather high, but this is still quite drinkable. Not bad at all, this is a very good hefeweizen! (346 characters)